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New teacher-education policy ‘will hurt quality’


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New teacher-education policy ‘will hurt quality’

By Chularat Saengpassa 
The Nation

 

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Rajabhat deans vow to fight govt decision to shorten training programme

 

THE ONGOING transition of the educational sector into a new and hopeful era risk stumbling after a drastic move by authorities to cut the duration of the teacher-education programme back to four years, many experts warned.

 

“Why will we undo the good changes that have already started for the sector?” asked prominent educator Athapol Anunthavorasakul, an academic from Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Education. 

 

Concerns are growing, particularly in light of the fact that all Rajabhat universities will be pressured – even if not required – to start offering four-year programmes from 2019 onwards.

 

If the change takes effect next year, Rajabhat universities will have to rush to adjust their programme’s content so as to inform their applicants in advance. Applications will be accepted in December. 

 

When Rajabhat universities reduce the duration of their teacher-education programmes from five to four years in response to the Education Ministry’s policy, other teacher-training institutes will follow suit too. Together, they will erode the five-year programmes that were introduced in 2004 in the hope of raising teacher quality and promoting the prestige of the teaching profession. 

 

“Many graduates of the five-year programmes have entered the educational sector already. Some have worked there for more than 10 years and generated positive impacts along the way. So, a good transition has begun in reality. Why are we going to stop it?” Athapol posed.

 

He said if the five-year programmes continued, their better-trained graduates would finally replace retiring teachers who graduated from previous teacher-education programmes where the training was less relevant to today’s world.

 

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The director of a small secondary school in Nakhon Sawan province, who agreed to an interview on condition of anonymity, said that the new-generation teachers – those from five-year programmes – had already proved very active and professional. 

 

She too cannot understand why the teacher-education programme is being shortened. 

 

Just like Athapol, she believes that students have received much more from the five-year programmes than their predecessors did from four-year ones. 

 

“When a whole year is added to the programmes, the students learn about designing course syllabus, conducting class-related research and are able to get more practice teaching,” Athapol said. 

 

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Athapol

 

He added that supervisors could also monitor their students more closely during their internship at schools. 

 

“Our five-year programmes have been designed to deliver high professional standards in line with the criteria set by the Office of Higher Education Commission and the Teachers’ Council of Thailand [TCT],” he said. 

 

According to the school director, students from the five-year programme inspect the schools where they are going to practice teaching during their third year. In the fourth year, they return to practice teaching to primary as well as to secondary-school students for one month, so as to determine which level of students they would prefer to teach. In the fifth year, they act as teacher trainees. 

 

“Most trainees are able to draw up the course syllabus on their own,” she said.

 

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Rajabhat Education Deans Council’s president Dr Direk Pornsima, who is the dean of Phranakhon Rajabhat University’s Faculty of Education, said his council members in fact disagreed with the shortening of their programmes. 

 

“But if it is the policy, we will have to respond,” Direk said. He added that if the duration would really have to be reduced to four years, students might be required to study during the usual summer-break months too.

 

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Dr Udom 

 

Last week, Deputy Education Minister Dr Udom Kachintorn announced that all Rajabhat universities would reduce the duration of their teacher-education programmes to four years from next year onwards. 

 

This is a sudden change, given that the presidents of the Rajabhat universities were, late last month, still discussing how to upgrade their five-year teacher education programmes for better quality. 

 

“Based on what information have you made the decision to cut the duration?” Athapol asked. “Or do you just make the decision and try to find whatever research to back it?”

 

He said no other country in the world would change the essence of teacher-education programmes based on the wishes of the powers-that-be, and not on the needs of the country’s educational sector. 

 

“From my experience, teacher education has a direct impact on educational quality,” Athapol said. 

 

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Rattakorn Kidkarn, dean of Nakhon Ratchasima Rajabhat University’s Faculty of Education, has so far argued that the shorter duration would be in line with the world’s emerging trend. 

 

“In the future, all courses at educational institutes will become shorter as people start to learn more outside the class,” he said. “This trend will affect not just teacher education but also other fields of study.”

 

Rattakorn does not disagree with the decision to shorten teacher-education programmes. But he is worried about the decision to offer four-year programmes from next year onwards. 

 

“We have not yet revised the curriculum,” he said. “I am not sure whether we will be able to do it before we start recruiting new students for the 2019 academic year in December.”

 

According to Rattakorn, revision of the curriculum involves several steps, including a review by a committee from the Faculty of Education, academic council, university council and the TCT. “The new professional standards have not come out yet. How will we start revising our curriculum then?” Rattakorn said. 

 

Regardless, Rattakorn confirmed that his institute would comply with the order for a shorter-duration programme.

 

“We will do our best to ensure that we can deliver quality graduates for the country, even though the programme is becoming shorter,” he said. 

 

A lecturer at a Rajabhat institute, so far, worried that the rush by universities to respond to the policy to cut back the duration of teacher-education programmes to four years would hardly guarantee any quality. 

 

“If students of these rushed programmes fail to meet the TCT standards in the end, who will take responsibility?” he asked. 

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30356894

 
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-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-10-22
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Why are the tables full of birdshit? Which student like to sit on that all day long?

 

Education in Thailand is very low, even on Swampy airport nobody can speak english, not even the taxi's or luggage-staff...unbelievable....

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1 hour ago, Joe Mcseismic said:

This is just what the Hi-sos want. As long as they can keep the general population ignorant and uneducated, they can continue looting the country and evading justice, just as they always have.

Not only Thailand....

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2 hours ago, Joe Mcseismic said:

This is just what the Hi-sos want. As long as they can keep the general population ignorant and uneducated, they can continue looting the country and evading justice, just as they always have.

Mate they are even too uneducated to do anything properly so a farang wouldn't get frustrated.

At least they should train them about good work-manners or they are useless to anybody and better go planting rice.

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as the first reply states it would be tough to hurt the quality any more than is done already

 

were one to be swimming in shit and were one to watch someone squat by the side and drop some hot slimey shit in that pool of shit one could perhaps see what is being got at here

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Sad to say but the 'make the courses shorter and the quality will improve' argument never resonated with me. Unless there is some exciting new way to learn teaching skills quicker and more effectively (and nothing along these lines has been discussed or implemented) then 4 year teaching degrees will be of lower quality than 5 year degrees other things being equal.

I'm sorry to say that they still haven't diagnosed what is wrong with the education system that makes it so dire. When this is done, then formulate a plan that addresses the problems. The Thai approach so disappointingly is fire-ready-aim, rather than aim-ready-fire style that Westerns espouse.

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2 hours ago, grumbleweed said:

 

If it takes 5 years learning to be able to create a course syllabus, then maybe they're in the wrong profession

In my home country, the minimum time to become a teacher is about 8 years, first, you need to get a degree (or degrees) for the subjects you are going to teach, then you do the teaching degree...

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36 minutes ago, Pedrogaz said:

Sad to say but the 'make the courses shorter and the quality will improve' argument never resonated with me. Unless there is some exciting new way to learn teaching skills quicker and more effectively (and nothing along these lines has been discussed or implemented) then 4 year teaching degrees will be of lower quality than 5 year degrees other things being equal.

I'm sorry to say that they still haven't diagnosed what is wrong with the education system that makes it so dire. When this is done, then formulate a plan that addresses the problems. The Thai approach so disappointingly is fire-ready-aim, rather than aim-ready-fire style that Westerns espouse.

I agree fully that they really need to address the issues with the whole system but if they can be more productive and do the work in 4 years then why not? There are some very good young teachers but they’re always being held back by the old guard who criticise their new methods and tell them how it should be done.

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1 hour ago, AlQaholic said:

In my home country, the minimum time to become a teacher is about 8 years

My niece back home is a teacher, 4 years for bachelors (can teach legally), 2 years masters Ed. More money-admin opportunities. 8 years to become a teacher what happened ? They missed primary and secondary school ? 8 years should get you a Phd.

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This is the worst education system I have witnessed anywhere in the world. This proposal will make it even more appalling. All by design of course. The rich elite in Thailand are terrified by the idea of the masses acquiring any worthwhile knowledge.

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A cut in one year is going to have no effect... 5 years or 4 years the same trash will be delivered off the conveyor belt at the end of each year!

Cut free periods, cut ridiculous holiday periods, cut the endless "beach trips" for so called team building exercises, cut all the BS and yes 4 years you could achieve the same result in 5 years...

But it's the same curriculum so don't expect anything different!

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I just finished an online chat with my son after sharing this article with him.

He unfortunately, after primary education in Singapore, and college in the US, had endured high school in Thailand.

His response was; "it's impossible for the quality to get any worse, unless you start getting homeless people off the street to become teachers"

Hard to argue with a kid that went through it!

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6 minutes ago, GinBoy2 said:

I just finished an online chat with my son after sharing this article with him.

He unfortunately, after primary education in Singapore, and college in the US, had endured high school in Thailand.

His response was; "it's impossible for the quality to get any worse, unless you start getting homeless people off the street to become teachers"

Hard to argue with a kid that went through it!

might surprise you that some homeless might well be good teachers, being homeless on the streets doesn't necessarily equate to low intelligence or lack of skills just as being a "teacher" doesn't make you intelligent and skilful. 

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I just finished an online chat with my son after sharing this article with him.

He unfortunately, after primary education in Singapore, and college in the US, had endured high school in Thailand.

His response was; "it's impossible for the quality to get any worse, unless you start getting homeless people off the street to become teachers"

Hard to argue with a kid that went through it!

So you put your son in a Gov high school in Thailand after primary school in Singapore ?


Sent from my iPhone using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
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9 minutes ago, markaoffy said:


So you put your son in a Gov high school in Thailand after primary school in Singapore ?


Sent from my iPhone using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

One year in a Govt. school and that was enough. 

 

That being said, the best I say about after moving him to a private school was that we bought him a group of better quality friends. Cant say that the quality of education increased that much.

 

He always kept in contact with his old friends in Singapore, and it was depressing the disparity

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I understand that for the past 20 years that English Language has been taught in ALL Thai schools.

Apart from the resort areas of the country, and in many parts of these, it is very difficult to find service staff that can speak basic English.

Why is this ?

Perhaps as a previous writer mentioned, "let's keep the population uneducated so we can control them"

Very sad for the Thai people.

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15 hours ago, cracker1 said:

I understand that for the past 20 years that English Language has been taught in ALL Thai schools.

Apart from the resort areas of the country, and in many parts of these, it is very difficult to find service staff that can speak basic English.

Why is this ?

Perhaps as a previous writer mentioned, "let's keep the population uneducated so we can control them"

Very sad for the Thai people.

And a large number of resort / hotel staff who do speak reasonable English are Philippino......

 

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